<html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> Thanks for the detailed report Gary Einstein On 4/24/2012 7:56 PM, Polly Panos wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:6836546.1335322587149.JavaMail.root@wamui-june.atl.sa.earthlink.net" type="cite"> <style>body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;}</style>Hello Everyone!     My husband and I were lucky enough to be able to make a quick trip to the park for the opening weekend.  I spent all day Saturday and part of the day Sunday in the Old Faithful area.     The lack of snow in the basin was surprising.  The boardwalks were clear, except for a little snow on the bridge near the cabins.  (There may also have been snow on the path between Sawmill & Lion, but I didn't travel that way.)  The Firehole River was full, but I didn't think that it looked high.  The weather was chilly in the mornings, but quickly warmed.   On Saturday, the wind was a bit cold at times, but by Sunday I was wishing that I had brought some lighter clothing!     The birds were back and enjoying the sunshine!   In the basin, I saw a pair of sandhill cranes, along with bluebirds, robins, geese, mallards, red-wing blackbirds, ravens, an osprey and some very noisy killdeer.  I didn't see any eagles during my trip.     The eagle's nest by Riverside Drive looks to be in need of repair.  It seemed to be unoccupied, but on the drive out I saw a goose sitting in it again.   Whiskey Flats was Whiskey Lake, as it often is this time of year.   We saw no carcasses anywhere between West Yellowstone and Old Faithful.  The bear that was at Old Faithful on Sunday was the only one that we saw.  My husband saw a fox chasing a rabbit near Biscuit Basin, and Kitt and I saw a snowshoe hare near the same area.     Many of the geyser eruptions have already been entered into Geyser Times from other gazers that were also in the park and by relays to vw (who very kindly entered them).   I'll go back later & see what else I can add.     Grand intervals were running on the early half of the window.  West Triplet, Percolator, and Rift were active.  All three Grands that I saw were 1 burst (although one of them tried valiantly to do a second), but they were beautiful in the sunlight!  One of them was a Grand start, and Turban took a full minute before it joined in.  The marmots are out.   During one of the morning waits, a very loud and shrill marmot alarm was sounded.  As we watched carefully to see what the danger was, a coyote finally poked out from the trees.  No marmot breakfast this time, however!  The Oblong that we watched from Grand Saturday morning was nice and large.     Kitt and I spent Saturday afternoon on Geyser Hill.  Beehive apparently had a very large splash (reported to be 15' plus) sometime between noon and 1:00, and also some large splashes an hour or two later.   Then it was fairly quiet until it started splashing nicely again just a few minutes before we had water in the Indicator.  At one point during the wait for Beehive, I watched North Goggles Geyser and Goggles Spring periodically overflow and pulse.   I timed one interval for the overflow at about 10 minutes, and the pulsing lasted about 3 minutes before it drained.  I also saw Sponge Geyser produce a thin spray of water a few inches high on two occasions.     Fan & Mortar looked the same as Carolyn L's last description.  I didn't stay to watch cycles.   The signs were in place at Giant.     The big news, of course, was the bear on Sunday.  It was a large, dark grizzly, with markings similar to The Bison Killer (Preacher Bear), but not as distinct.  It sounds like the rangers believed it to be the offspring of The Bison Killer.   We were at Grand when Beehive's Indicator started.   We had a low pool and Turban started just about the time that the Indicator was confirmed.  We started hustling, wondering if we should go to the hill.  Just past Tardy, though, the bear came out from near Castle and started walking toward the meadow between Lion and the Inn.  He spent several minutes roaming around and foraging, and finally found something good to dig up and eat next to Beehive's overlook path.  (We watched Beehive near Liberty Pool, just before the trees.)   The rangers were with people at the Old Faithful benches, and at one point we heard them hitting sticks/boards together to let the bear know that they were there.  After that, the bear went into the trees near Blue Star Spring, and apparently bedded down for a few minutes near the bridge that is by the cabins.  Later I heard that he was up and moving, but I did not see him again.  I heard that the area from Sulphide Spring over toward the Old Faithful benches was closed for a time while the bear was there, but people seemed to be moving through there later after the bear had moved.    Even though it was a quick trip, it felt great to be in the park again!  Hope to see many of you there this summer! Polly Panos <fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset> <pre wrap="">_______________________________________________ Geysers mailing list <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Geysers@lists.wallawalla.edu">Geysers@lists.wallawalla.edu</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.wallawalla.edu/mailman/listinfo/geysers">https://lists.wallawalla.edu/mailman/listinfo/geysers</a></pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>